


One Stormy Night

by vulcanhighblood



Series: One Stormy Night [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Lullabies, Pale, Wigglers, eridan is an orphaner, erikar - Freeform, if u squint i guess, if u squint rly hard, karkat is confused, karkat is upset, lusus murder mentions, send help which one is it i cant find a decent source, sorry im so bad at titles, wrigglers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 04:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5150237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulcanhighblood/pseuds/vulcanhighblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternately titled "Wherein a highblood appears upon one Karkat Vantas' doorstep with a wiggler in tow and proceeds to make the evening vastly more uncomfortable for the troll, eventually redeeming the situation by engaging in a vaguely uncouth three-way cuddle with the tealblood wiggler who WILL NOT GO TO SLEEP"<br/>(Karkat invents a lullaby. It is horrendous.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Stormy Night

**Author's Note:**

> please sing the stupid lullaby to the tune of 'rock-a-bye baby'  
> thanks!

“What. The fuck. Is that?” You say, staring at Eridan _fucking_ Ampora. He’s standing just outside your hive, bedraggled, with a miserable pout on his face, his cape wrapped around something he's holding all bundled up in his arms. Just then the cape fucking _moves_  and you are _not_ letting him - or that thing - into your hive this is _so outside of your comfort zone oh my fucking gog._

“‘s the only lusus I could find today,” Eridan says helplessly, “Fef couldn't, an’ I- Kar, she's so fuckin’ tiny,” Eridan lifts the bundle demonstratively,”I couldn't just leave her.” Eridan’s eyes, veiled by thick, smudged lenses, beg you to understand. “I didn't know, Kar. You know me, I wouldn't fuckin’ do this on purpose,” he insists, trilling slightly on the ‘w’ in a way that shouldn't be endearing, but it is, somehow.

He doesn't look cold, exactly. _Fucking seadweller, it probably feels fucking balmy outside to him._ Unfortunately, you can't say the same for the wiggler clutched in Eridan’s long, spindly arms. Its movements have slowed drastically in the time Eridan Ampora has spent standing awkwardly outside your hive, so you step aside and let loose with a loud, put-upon sigh as you do so, just so the fishtroll doesn’t mistakenly think you are somehow pleased with this turn of events. “Fine,” you say, with a tone that says it is anything but. “Just shut up and get the fuck inside before it dies of fucking exposure, alright?”

Eridan nods and hurries past you, shoulders hunched like he has something to hide. Then again, he does, in a sense. After all, abandoned troll wigglers rarely survive long in the wild. You’d never heard of any _this_ young surviving without their lusus, in any case. Eridan’s eyes are rimmed with yellow all around, panic making his gills flap with every quick breath he takes. He practically shoves the thing in your arms upon entry, his cape is _soaked through and freezing_ and now  your shirt is all wet and gross and it was such a terrible night outside to begin with and the wetness of his cape and frankly this whole situation is really not making you feel any better. Still, you will not be accused of being a poor host, despite how quickly this was sprung upon you. “Hey fuckface,” you address Eridan, whose earfins, which had been drooping quite low, spring up at the attention, “You want something to eat?”

* * *

You’re fuckin starved and thought he’d never ask. “Fuck yes,” you say, expecting Kar to dump the tiny tealblood wiggler back in your arms while he gets you something to eat. But he doesn’t, clinging to your wet cape and the tiny wiggler with one hand while he uses his other hand to boil water and pour it over some sort of instant food package. He starts unwrapping the wiggler while he waits, swearing under his breath because of _course_ the wiggler is cold it was fuckin freezing outside, and what the fuck was that nasty fishtroll thinking, leaving you out there like that and-

Was Kar fuckin wiggler-talking to that tiny tealblood? You dismiss the thought as Kar drops a container of whatever he made in front of you and the smell of food hits your nostrils and you remember you’ve been fuckin hunting lusii for three fuckin days and you only packed enough food for one day, tops. Your nutrition sac gurgles at the smell of instant cluckbeast soup, and you gulp it down in about four seconds only to realize Kar is watching you, the tealblood wiggler gently tucked up against his chest, its tiny head nestled under his chin. If he didn’t have such a massive scowl painted across his features, the scene would be adorable, downright domestic. As it stands, Kar looks about ready to explode. You’re about to thank him for the help, that you’ll be on your way, but you’re so fuckin _tired_ and you open your mouth to say as much and you _yawn_ ,  so long and so loud and you’d probably be embarrassed if you weren’t still so hungry and fuckin exhausted.

Kar seems to notice this, eyes narrowing as he contemplates something. He spins around and quickly starts fixing something, still with one hand, his other arm still clutching the tiny tealblood to his chest. He drops the next bowl of soup in front of you and you barely grunt in acknowledgement. He has to feed you about five more bowls of the stuff before you have to cut yourself off. You’re still starving, but the look on his face he’s trying to hide tells you he doesn’t have much more food in his hive and you don’t want to impose too much.

“You fucking done?” he demands, though only after he’s side-eyed you to make sure you really are done. Despite his gruff exterior, you have the feeling that if you still looked hungry, he would have fed you every last morsel of food in his hive.

“I c’n take her now,” you offer, reaching for the tealblood.

Kar pulls back, arms arched protectively over the wiggler, a chirr of warning escaping his squawkblister. He blinks, apparently as surprised by this response as you are. “No,” he says after a moment, his voice trilling ever-so-slightly. “Why don’t you, I don’t know, take a fucking nap or something? You look like hoofbeast manure.”

“Yeah, maybe I will,” you say after a moment, letting the exhaustion sweep over you. A quick nap might be nice, actually…

When you wake up, you realize Kar must have put you into his recuperacoon at some point, because you’re lying in sopor - it’s thin, a lot thinner than what you’re used to, but then again Kar isn’t exactly what you would call well off. Still, he’s a good friend. You can’t think of any other friends who would have welcomed you into their hive the way he had, especially if you’d come bearing a tealblooded wiggler. Well, Vris might have let you in, but she probably would have tormented the wiggler, and… well, you didn’t want make Fef feel any more guilt over her lusus than is absolutely necessary. You swore you would bear that burden for her so she wouldn’t have to worry quite so much. It's a thankless, often unrecognized job, but it keeps G’bolyb quiet so you aren’t going to complain.

Kar is a one-of-a-kind friend, that much is sure. You frown slightly as you edge into wakefulness, realizing you can hear the soft, slightly rough tones of Kar’s voice. But who is he talking to? Or is that… is he singing?

You edge up out of the slime slowly, fumbling for your glasses and sliding them on, peering out on the most adorable domestic scene you’ve ever witnessed in your life, your bloodpusher nearly skipping a beat at the paleness of the scene before you.

Karkat is hunched up, swaddled in blankets on a pile of cushions and other soft items, the tiny tealblood clutched in his arms, singing in a low tone. You can’t make out the words, precisely, but the scene is so fuckin pale you can’t quite process what you’re seeing. It feels almost indecent, like Kar’s half lusus, half moirail, it’s odd. And what is he supposed to be singing, exactly? You try to make it out, but the words are frustratingly quiet and his tone just doesn’t carry well. You carefully pull yourself out of the 'coon, padding towards the ablution block, glancing at Karkat, who makes eye contact with you and nods once to indicate it’s fine.

You shower quickly, not wanting to overstay your welcome, and are about to exit the ablution block when you pause, realizing that you can hear Karkat’s song more clearly from this location.

“ _Go the fuck to sleep_ ,” he croons, “ _go to fucking bed. I can’t sing lullabies, so have this shit instead_.” he continues the song, a familiar lullaby tune, with drastically different words from what you remember. “ _I’m not your lusus, he’s dead by the way, just fucking shut up please and sleep now, okay?_ ” Somehow the song is uniquely Karkat, and despite the horrific nature of the lyrics, as you gently push the door to the ablution block open, you note with some amazement that Kar’s song seems to have lulled the tealblood wiggler to near-sleep, if not total slumber.

Karkat looks up, and your face must have shown how amused you were by his singing, because his eyes flash murder, and the look on his face clearly says “if you ever fucking mention this to anyone I will fucking _end_ you, do you understand?”

You nod seriously, and Kar shuffles slightly in the pile, indicating the open spot that he's created next to himself. After a moment of hesitation, you sink down into the pile beside him. The two of you sit rather comfortably in silence for a few minutes, before the wiggler starts to make unhappy noises. A beat passes, and then Karkat begins to huskily mutter, “ _Go the fuck to sleep_ …”

You join in for the third round, a part of you wondering what exactly this is and where it might go from here, but mostly you feel content to remain in this moment for as long as it lasts.


End file.
